Conversion rates are something that every business owner should know about when dealing with the effectiveness of their business website.  However, while information regarding the optimization of conversion rates is readily available on the web, that doesn't mean it's easy to understand.  Over the next several posts I'll be exploring everything a person needs to know about website conversion rates.  For this first post, we'll stick to the basics, learning what, exactly, a website conversion rate is. 

What is it?

A conversion rate is essential for understanding how your business website behaves with respect to monetary value. For businesses, it helps when dealing with different marketing aspects of your business.  A website conversion rate is a measure of the number of visitors on your website performing the desired action-this could be signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product or service, or simply staying on the website for more than three minutes.  If you want to calculate the conversion rate for your own website, you take the number of visitors you have performing your desired action, and divide it by the number of visitors you have total.  For example, if you have 100 total visitors to your site, and one of them performs your desired action, then your conversion rate is 1%. 

Why is it Important?

Conversion rate is very important for business websites, especially businesses that run entirely online without a store people can come to.  The conversion rate shows you how many people are actually doing what you want them to on your website.  If you can see that your conversion rate is high, then you know that what you are doing with your website is effective.  However, if you have a relatively low conversion rate, then you know that you need to tweak your website so that you are using it as a profit-driving business tool- one that leads to a ROI.  Put more simply, is your website efficient?  Conversion rate will answer that question.  The difference between a 5% conversion rate and a 40% conversion rate can have a big difference, not just on your website, but with your business. 

This is just the basics on website conversion rate-there is still a lot more to learn.  In our upcoming posts your will learn more about how to improve conversion rates, and how to track and report conversion rates.

To learn more about conversion rates or how to optimize your website for users, contact a Blue Archer Professional. 

Michelle Hawley

Digital Content Writer

@BlueArcherPGH